The present invention relates to a sealing process for surface pores of construction parts, particularly parts in the form of cover plates and/or face plates, both prefabricated and made from natural rock.
This invention to applicable in sealing surface pores of tiles, stoneware and porcelain both enamelled and not. Likewise, it is applicable to granites, rock, marble, earth ware, hydraulics, earth, cotto and in general to all materials used in construction, those used for floors or tiles susceptible of having surface pores and therefore susceptible of being stained or attacked by certain acids.
Construction materials which have surface pores, either due to their intrinsic nature or to polishing processes suffer from corrosion more than others due to the possible penetration of certain acids or aggressive agents through their pores. Likewise, in these surface pores may enter dyes and other staining substances which are hard to remove.
In order to avoid these problems the surface pores may be sealed or covered. Presently, two industrial processes are known for sealing surface pores in construction parts.
One of these processes is based on using waxes which are introduced in the pores to thus seal or cover them. The main drawback of waxes is that they tend to get dirty themselves due to their own nature and by contact with the surroundings, as they are easily contaminated by contact with any external element. Their subsequent cleaning is virtually impossible. A further problem presented by this system is that waxes are not resistant to solvents, and thus with the use of solvents in detergents they are gradually removed from the pores and over time are completely eliminated after successive cleaning, so that the pore is again uncovered.
The second known process used industrially to date is application of silicone sprays or hydrophobic liquids, that is, liquids whose principal characteristic is that they repel an aqueous base. The main problems presented by use of the liquid is that cleaning of the excess in the product manufacture stage is more difficult. Additionally, they are not very resistant to solvents so that we find the same problem mentioned above in sealing pores permanently. Sealing processes based on non-polymerisable liquids also suffer from their removal by solvents, leaving the pore exposed once again.